We want to win. We will also tell you early if we can’t.
Highview Strategies is a Sacramento public affairs firm. Our clients are trade associations, companies and lobby firms who need a decision to go their way in the Legislature, at an agency, or on the ballot.
- Managing PartnerHighview Strategies
- Executive DirectorCalifornia Rental Housing Association
- Executive DirectorCalifornia African American Water Education Foundation
Russell Lowery
Twenty-five years in California and Washington political and policy negotiations, on the staff side, the government side and the lobbying side.
Russell was a senior legislative staffer, then Chief Deputy at the Board of Equalization, where he oversaw $60 billion a year in sales tax policy. He was lead or lead-participant negotiator on three statewide bonds, for water, housing and transportation, and lead staff negotiator on the California budget. He then lobbied for the largest utility in the state before founding this firm.
He has produced hundreds of pieces of advocacy material. He has also read thousands of them from the other side of the desk, which is the more useful education. There is no set of talking points that works on every member you need to reach.
He is also executive director of the California Rental Housing Association and the California African American Water Education Foundation. We do not only advise associations. We run two.
Every client we have works with people on Capitol Weekly’s Top 100. That is the room we have been in for two decades, and it is where your bill, rule or permit gets decided.
Three things we hold to
A straight answer on your odds before you spend
From the first conversation you get a candid assessment. If we think the votes are not there, we say so and tell you to conserve your resources. We would rather lose the engagement than spend a year of your budget on a fight you were never going to win.
The non-obvious path, with a reason you can defend
Sacramento is not corrupt. It is illegible from the outside. We spent twenty years inside it, so the route we propose is rarely the standard one, and it comes with the record that lets you defend it to your board.
Work that leaves you stronger after the vote
A coalition that knows the member, a member base that knows the fight, a seat on the board that regulates you. The fights we run leave assets behind, and the next fight starts from them.
We built the tools because the questions were answerable.
The disclosure database and the appointments finder are our own builds, assembled from California’s public filings and the Governor’s published reports. They exist because the questions our clients ask are answerable in principle and unanswered in practice.
Non-partisan by design. We work both sides of the aisle, and the research has no side either.
We do not allege anything. We organize what California has already disclosed, every figure keeps its source, and it is written for review rather than accusation.
We do not lobby the Legislature directly, and we do not replace the shop you have.
Tell us what you need decided.
A bill, a rule, a permit, a board seat or an opponent. We are glad to talk it through before anyone signs anything.
- Emailrussell@highviewstrat.com
- Phone916-710-2872
- Office1121 L Street, Suite 105
Sacramento, CA 95814
What happens next
Russell reads every message himself and replies within one business day. The first conversation covers the fight, who decides it, and whether a free assessment is worth running.